Story Review: The Pain Tree by Olive Senior

Who is your favorite character from the story and what kind of background do they come from? Why? (use examples from Michelle Cliff's essay, If I Could Write This in Fire)

Even though I love and admire the strength of Larissa's character in life in general, even more during her son's death, I have to say that my favorite character is Lorraine, because I think I understand a little her posture towards things you did and you can't change anymore or how she analyzed the context in which she grew, that made her part of the oppressors of Larissa's people. I can feel her regrets. 

I think there is a connection with Michelle Cliff's essay in the perspective of how two white girls were related with a Larissa and Zoe. For example is the way away.their future was written before they even knew, because in the capitalist system every person has a role that is immovable. 

Why do you think Lorraine's mother mocks the workers that want independence from England?

I think she mocks because she thinks it is ridiculous that they want freedom. She just sees her comfortable position in the structure that validates a person worth by the color of their skin and they money. I think I can not judge her, because everyone can make such mistakes when raised with a silver spoon. Even though her sin is to keep her eyes close to other people's suffering, even the relatively close to her. She, as a white woman with money, thinks England is the higher form of status, so she can't imagine what is to see that country trough the eyes of the oppressed.

What is a "pain tree" and how does it play a role in the story?

A pain tree is a tree in which people go and hammer a nail in representation of leaving a heavy burden (emotional) in care of another, even more a leaving it to the care of the lives we think can't understand us. The role that it plays in this story is that is fundamental to explain that Jamaican people was not even allowed to express their sadness, as in comparison with the family friend who lost her child and made the whole community sad with her. I think that  the Jamaican shared a special connection with all the flora and fauna that surround them, feeling as one.

What is the meaning of the line "people like me will always inherit de land, but they were the ones who already possessed the Earth"?

I have a kind of "romantic" lecture of this phrase, because I think of way to say that you can buy a land, but it will never be truly yours, because money have no value in comparison to the feelings and blood shared between humans, animals and vegetations. It means that we have roots that can't be cut by money, because they are spiritual, that is the reason why the cedar tree takes the pain away from the women, because he emphasizes with his real blood sisters. For me the land is more like a word to describe property, while Earth is clearly related to the very deeps of the environment and planet.

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 I have to say that this text touched a deep thread in my heart. I understand Lorraine's feeling of longing for a person who she could not say goodbye. It happened and happens to me and I will forever wish that I could have a word back from said person. Even though I have his address, I know my letters will never reach those man hands. So I just do nothing, because for me it is a way of keeping him alive.